In an orthopaedic surgery to replace part or all of a patient's joint with a prosthetic implant, a portion of the implant receiving bone is prepared to closely match the mating surfaces of the implant. If the knee joint is being replaced, the distal end of the femur is prepared to accommodate a femoral knee component and the proximal end of the tibia is prepared to accommodate a tibial component.
Heretofore, these surfaces were substantially prepared by the use of reciprocating or oscillating saw blades used in conjunction with a series of saw guides. The guides may comprise merely a platform on which the surgeon rests the blade during resection or may comprise a slot for capturing the saw blade therewithin. Typically, in the preparation of the femur, a series of cutting guides are placed adjacent the distal femur in a specific order to resect portions of the femur in succession. These cutting guides are generally individually aligned by the surgeon with reference to specific anatomic landmarks. The use of multiple cutting guides requiring individual alignment by the surgeon may lead to inaccuracies in the cuts which would provide a less than optimal fit between the bone and implant. Such saw blades commonly used in the resection of bone are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,002,555, 5,133,728, and 5,135,533. An example of a typical cutting guide may be had by reference to U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,037, illustrating a saw guide having captured slots.
The consistency of results achieved when using a saw blade and a series of cutting guides may vary widely from surgeon to surgeon.